NPG Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics NPG Nonlin. Processes Geophys. 1607-7946 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/npg-14-671-2007 Vlasov simulation of Langmuir wave packets Umeda T. 1 Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan 25 10 2007 14 5 671 679 Copyright: © 2007 T. Umeda 2007 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This article is available from https://npg.copernicus.org/articles/14/671/2007/npg-14-671-2007.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://npg.copernicus.org/articles/14/671/2007/npg-14-671-2007.pdf

Amplitude modulation and packet formation of Langmuir waves are commonly observed during a nonlinear interaction between electron beams and plasmas. In this paper, we briefly review the history of Langmuir wave packets as developed by recent spacecraft observations and computer simulations. New one-dimensional electrostatic Vlasov simulations are performed to study their formation processes. It is found that the formation of Langmuir wave packets involves both an incoherent turbulent process and a coherent nonlinear trapping process. Existence of cold ions does not affect nonlinear processes of the weak-electron-beam instability in which the ion distribution is hardly modified by the excited Langmuir wave packets.

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